Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

Our customers often do not know nearly as much about the universe of potential solutions to a problem as we do. As product creators, we need to be experts in the different solutions that exist in a market, including the advantages and disadvantages of choosing them. Customers, however, have often never purchased a solution like yours before. They a

Even if you do manage to capture their attention, ineffective positioning makes it hard for them to understand why they might want to buy what you’re selling.

Focus on your best customers and what they would identify as alternative solutions. You may have some edge-case customers who are aware of smaller companies or who have a unique reason for considering an alternative, but you’re trying to focus on the general case for your best customers.

Often a category emerges when an enabling technology, a shift in customer preferences and a supporting ecosystem manage to come together at once. If your product cannot be well positioned in any existing category, this might be a good option for you. If your solution requires both a new way of thinking about the boundaries of an existing category a

In the other positioning styles, you’re leveraging what folks already know about a category and building on that to create a position in the mind of customers. In this style, you are starting with a blank canvas.

Use abductive reasoning. The adage “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck” also applies to new products. With abductive reasoning, you choose a market category by isolating your key features and their value, and asking yourself, What types of products typically have those features? What catego

STEP 6. Map the Attributes to Value “Themes”

These are the Five (Plus One) Components of Effective Positioning: Competitive alternatives. What customers would do if your solution didn’t exist. Unique attributes. The features and capabilities that you have and the alternatives lack. Value (and proof). The benefit that those features enable for customers. Target market characteristics. The char

The point of working through the sales story is that everyone in the discussion can agree on how the positioning translates into a “pitch.” To do that, the team needs to agree on how to define the problem, current solutions, the gap and the key purchase criteria that a customer should have when looking for a solution in your market.

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